Concavenator’s Collection (new 04/02/2025)

[Halichoeres]

The Styracosaurus is really nice. I'm still debating whether to go for it or stick with PNSO.

I am kind of skeptical of Concavenator quills just because of its phylogenetic position. I agree with you that there are several really nice figures of the genus, and one bonus is that a collector can choose the one closest to their own evaluation of the ulnar evidence.

[SidB]

The Styracosaurus is really nice. I'm still debating whether to go for it or stick with PNSO.

I am kind of skeptical of Concavenator quills just because of its phylogenetic position. I agree with you that there are several really nice figures of the genus, and one bonus is that a collector can choose the one closest to their own evaluation of the ulnar evidence.

Perhaps we'll never know for sure - I too tend to take the approach Forest Rogers took with her fine Carnegie Safari Concavenator back in the waning days of the old Carnegie Collection. It received a lot of criticism for lacking quills, but that approach has me convinced most of the time, though I remain open to HLG's stance.

[Concavenator]

@Halichoeres Well, I replaced PNSO's with HLG's, so what can I say, I think it's a worthwhile replacement.  PNSO's is excellent, but so is HLG's, and HLG's would also scale better with quite a bit of your ceratopsids (HLG's Chasmosaurus, Diabloceratops, Kosmoceratops, Eofauna's and Safari's Triceratops, etc.). I even gained a little profit by replacing PNSO's Styracosaurus with HLG's.  I'm pretty content with the replacement, and it wasn't hard for me to let go of PNSO's, as good as it is. After seeing their tiny (but 1:35) Kosmoceratops and seeing the Styracosaurus (and Diabloceratops) featured on that 2024 teaser, I was certain I'd be replacing PNSO's Styracosaurus and Safari's Diabloceratops with HLG's, I was just waiting for those figures, with their corresponding measurements, to be announced. And when they did, it was a no brainer for me.

As for Concavenator having feathers, who knows... Sciurumimus is feathered and last I checked it was believed it may have been a megalosauroid. If so, feathers would've been more widespread among Theropoda than previously thought (Tianyulong and Kulindadromeus further proved feathers were more common in non-avian dinosaurs as a whole than previously believed). If there were feathered megalosauroids, I guess that feathered allosauroids wouldn't be out of the question. Not saying every megalosauroid or allosauroid was necessarily feathered, but that could've been the condition on some taxon here and there.

S @SidB It was noted on Concavenator's description that the ulnar bumps likely suggested the presence of some sort of structure being present. So as it currently stands, a depiction like HLG's (or Favorite's) should be considered more accurate than those who omit such a feature, like Carnegie's or Wild Safari's, at least when it comes to how the forearms are being depicted. It's fine if someone prefers the arms to not have any feathers/quills on them, but that would be an aesthetic preference.

[Concavenator]

Binomial name: Estemmenosuchus mirabilis (Chudinov, 1968)
Etymology: Wondrous crowned crocodile (Greek and Latin)
Classified as: Synapsida -> Eupelycosauria -> Sphenacodontia -> Sphenacodontoidea -> Therapsida -> Eutherapsida -> Dinocephalia -> Estemmenosuchidae
Period: Middle Permian (Wordian)
Fossils found in: Belebei Formation, present-day Russia (Eurasia)

Company: Safari Ltd.
Line: Wild Safari Prehistoric World
Sculptor: Doug Watson
Year of release: 2023

Review:

Spoiler

A synapsid that possesses an impressive set of ornaments on its skull. Despite its large fangs, it is believed to have been a herbivore (Dixon, 2010). Estemmenosuchus is one of the few non-mammal synapsids to have been found with associated integument (Greenfield, 2021). A description of integument belonging to Estemmenosuchus uralensis (Chudinov, 1960) suggests some of the structures found on it might represent the remains of dermal glands. If true, this would represent the earliest occurrence of glands in the fossil record (Chudinov 1968 & Greenfield 2021)

When I first learned about Estemmenosuchus, I found it to be quite the odd creature, and I thought I'd like to have a figure of it. However, I really did not like CollectA's at all, mainly because of its colors (easily one of my least favorite color schemes on any figure I've seen; CollectA is both responsible for some of the most unappealing color schemes as well as some of the most attractive ones in my book). I wasn't really expecting anybody else to make additional figures of this taxon, but Safari's was an unexpected-but-appreciated surprise. Glad to have snatched it up!



Next to Wonder Artistic Models' 1:25 humanoid for scale.



And for lack of a better comparison, here's the Estemmenosuchus next to other 1:25 critters.

[close]

[SidB]

I'm pleasantly surprised that those teeth don't look as blunted as I thought that they might be.

[Flaffy]

Having the superior colour scheme aside, the Safari Estemennosuchus also has the ears in the correct location compared to CollectA's. The same error can be observed on their Lisowicia, but thankfully fixed on their Placerias.

I like having both figures because the CollectA at a larger scale shows the dentition better, which at Safari's size would be very difficult to accurately portray.